Special Ops: A Photo History
Killing Osama bin Laden
Certainly special ops' greatest recent success was the elimination of al Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden, carried out on May 1, 2011. The operation was the culmination of years of intelligence work, as bin Laden was tracked through his courier to a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where commandos from Seal Team 6 swept in on two helicopters and in less than forty minutes neutralized the house, killed their target and removed the terrorist leader's body along with a treasure trove of computers and other materials, all without suffering a single casualty. Here, Vice President Biden, President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates and other officials watch a video of the mission filmed by a drone overhead.